Richard Cocciante - Richard Cocciante [20th Century]

When Love Has Gone Away? What Happened To Song?

By George  Dec 25, 2005

Pros: Certainly, Cocciante's voice commands respect and he airs out his pipes well on this song!

Cons: Cocciante is of French/Italian heritage and usually sings in Italian or French. His accent is fairly strong in this song and the lyrics are difficult to understand at times.

When this song was released in 1976, it was touted by the local L.A. disc jockey really hyped the song as the greatest thing since Hey Jude. He promoted it as if Richard Cocciante were his brother and he held 70% of the profit for sales. I mean, &quo...t;The Real Don Steel" was rambling on about "When Love Has Gone Away" as a probable Gold song, possibly Platnum, or Double Platnum, Triple Gold, Quadruple Kryptonite ... whatever! Surely, The RDS was impressed, and hyped a song like I have never heard since or before. Obviously, my interest had been peeked. I waited around the radio station for 35 minutes before the song was actually played over the air. I listened, got lost with most of the lyrics, but Cocciante's voice was booming (on occasion, it seemed as if he strained on the high notes). Again, the song was a boomer and it sorta grew on me after a few takes. However, the overall hype did little to promote this song. Not much more than a week and the song just sorta disappeared, a quick and quiet death. I, however, did buy the 45 record and listened until I actually began to like it, really. It is clear, however, that I am one of a very tiny group of song appreciators, for that song anyway. It is a song that is difficult to like at first listen. But give it a few times and see what you think.It is difficult to find for download these days. It's a rare record. I still crank it up on occasion, and love every second. Read more Less